ANZ to pump $1bn into Rinehart’s Roy Hill mine

ANZ Banking Group has provided up to $US1 billion ($1.09 billion) in bridging finance for Gina Rinehart’s $10 billion Roy Hill iron ore project in Western Australia, reducing the pressure on the billionaire to fund construction with her own money.

The bridging facility was agreed to in recent months as part of efforts by Rinehart’s private company, ­Hancock Prospecting, to secure $4 billion in debt for Roy Hill from export credit agencies. These negotiations have dragged on too.

Hancock wants to raise an additional $3 billion or so in debt from commercial banks for Roy Hill, making it the biggest mining project finance deal in history. ANZ’s bridging finance is viewed as an audacious bid by the bank to win as much of the deal as possible.

“It’s a pretty gutsy play by ANZ because if the funding doesn’t emerge, their only collateral will be a partially built project,” said one source about the funding.

“That’s risky, right. That’s not even project financing. There’s huge aggression to come in on that commercial tranche.”

A bank spokeswoman would not comment on customer matters. Roy Hill spokesman Darryl Hockey said Hancock’s equity partners “continued to provide sufficient funds to allow us to progress the project”.